Research Education Component Abstract The mission of the University of Southern California?s Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research, the Center for the Minority Aging Health Economics Research Center (USC RCMAR), is to provide infrastructure and resources to support the academic success of underrepresented minority researchers, called RCMAR scientists, and to increase the number and diversity of researchers in aging. The focus is on using longitudinal survey and claims-based data sources to identify causal pathways: i.e., (1) social, economic and environmental factors driving disparities in physical disease and cognitive functioning; and (2) health consequences of disparities in medical care and pharmaceutical utilization. The Research Education Component will build on prior successes to recruit talented junior scientists from underrepresented groups and provide them with multidisciplinary mentoring so that they produce results in scientifically rigorous, aging- related research projects that lead to impactful publications and make them competitive in securing an award for an independent, investigator-initiated research project. The Research Education Component will track and evaluate the successes of RCMAR scientists during the period of the award and after to support their research careers, improve the experiences of the next cohort of scientists and foster diversity in the academic workforce.